Drug Enforcement Administration

South Berwick Man Sentenced On Distribution Of Suboxone Resulting In Death Charge

PORTLAND, Maine - John J. Arvanitis, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration for New England and United States Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II announced that Shawn Verrill, 23, was sentenced today in United States District Court before United States District Judge D. Brock Hornby to 71 months in prison and 3 years of supervised release. The sentence followed Verrill’sguilty plea on March 20, 2013 to a charge of distribution of (Suboxone) resulting in the death of Miles Malone.

Court records established that on the evening of October 12, 2010, at Verrill’s apartment in South Berwick, Verrill supplied 2 suboxone pills to Miles Malone and that Miles Malone died later that evening after consuming the pills. The subsequent autopsy showed that Mr. Malone died from buprenorphine toxicity.

Court records show when police were called to Verrill’s apartment on the morning of October13, 2010 in response to Mr. Malone’s death, they searched the apartment and recovered three pharmaceutical bottles secreted in a concrete block that was used to hold up a television; one bottle contained suboxone pills, one bottle contained clonazepam pills, and one bottle contained klonopin pills.

Court records also show that as part of their investigation, police collected DNA samples from the pharmaceutical bottles recovered from Verrill’s apartment. Officers also collected a DNA sample from Verrill. Laboratory analysis showed that Verrill’s DNA matched the DNA recovered from the cap of the suboxone bottle.

This case was investigated by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration and South Berwick Police Department.